Spiritual Explorations

Circus Protest

2010-04-28T22:47:00.000-07:00

Over the weekend, Michelle and I went and protested the Shriner circus that came to town. For those that don't know, circuses are notorious for mistreating their animals, using pain as a means to control and train them. Elephants, tigers, and lions belong in the wild, not cooped up in cages and trucked across the country for the amusement of us Westerners. Needless to say, a lot of people don't agree with that assessment, and so there were three of us holding signs at the protest while hundreds of circus goers passed by us. We were definitely accosted by a few people of them, but the real harassment came from a clown that literally cursed at Michelle in front of children, and a Shriner that called the cops on us (the cops, however, did not respond to the call)

I think the biggest success of the protest is that we stood our ground and remained peaceful and non confrontational. I felt that was the most important part of the action, as we were able to get a message across in a way that did not escalate the situation into anger, although we did have to focus our energy into transforming what started as an argument into something closer to a discussion. Being in a situation where you are openly disagreeing with those that are around you and being in a clear minority is not a comfortable situation to be in, but I believe it can be a good experience for learning how to nonviolently handle conflict. In this light, I feel performing such actions are extremely valuable, regardless of whether or not they convince anyone of anything.

Strangely, several people told us they agreed with what we were doing, and then bought tickets anyway. I'm not sure what this says about our society, but perhaps it will be the last time they go to the circus.

My Message To Revolution Muslim

2010-04-26T10:12:00.000-07:00

A lot of attention has been given to the group Revolution Muslim who has decried South Park's Matt Stone and Trey Parker for their (censored) depiction of the prophet Muhammad, and likened them to Theo Van Gogh who was killed by Muslim extremists who found his video depicting Muslim mistreatment of women insulting. It's worth taking a look at their website and responding to their open invitation for discussion. They do make some good points which can set the context for this following quote, which most Westerners will object to:

"There is no difference of opinion from those with any degree of a reputation that the punishment is death. Ibn Taymiyyah a great scholar of Islam says, “Whoever curses the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) -a Muslim or a non Muslim- then he must be killed…and this is the opinion of the general body of Islamic scholars.”

Likewise Ibn Mundhir, another classical scholar, said, “It is the consensus (ijma’) of our scholars that the one who curses the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) should be executed!”

This is also the opinion of Imams Malik, al-Laith, Ahmed, Ishaq, Shafi’i, and Numan Abu Haneefah.

This shows that taking this stance is virtually obligatory, but it does not mean that our taking this stance is in some way an absolute call toward the requirement that the creators of South Park must be killed, nor a deliberate attempt at incitement, it is only to declare the truth regardless of consequence and to offer an awareness in the mind of Westerners when they consider doing the same thing."

Here's my response to Revolution Muslim's sentiments, which I sent to their page:

"I also strongly detest what Western culture has done and is doing to the spiritual livelihoods of all mankind as well as the Muslim people. I feel we are all in deep crisis. However, I've found that faith in God inspires peace, not a willingness or need to kill or justify killing.

If someone insults God, I find it reveals their lack of understanding and the likelihood of their own tormented or condemned state. It does nothing to tarnish God or the representatives of God, as the God that I believe in, and anyone awakened by that God, is beyond these things. For me, showing the way that I remain spiritually unthreatened and unaffected by such insults better demonstrates the steadiness of my faith.

Could, however, such insults corrupt a [Western] culture? Perhaps, but perhaps they reveal corruption that was already there, and when an insulted person acts on that corruption violently, the next reaction only leads to more hatred, violence, puppet governments, and thus further corruptions and distortions. I would respectfully suggest that perhaps the perpetrators of these insults [curses] in fact could NOT be insulting [cursing] Mohamed in an essential sense, because they do not know who he is. Their words are a breeze of ignorance and hatred directed toward a false reality they have created, and so they are actually degrading their own soul while they are potentially inciting physical threats to both themselves and the Muslim people.

In my opinion it is those who take to arms as a result, not God or his prophets, that have become scathed by the words of morally corrupt individuals, and so the responsibility lies with them as to how they choose to respond. As faith in God for me in practice has been a force for interpersonal transformation and nonviolent social engagement (but not a method for submission to corruption), a violent reaction would indicate to me more of a kinship with the original transgression, and further enslavement by the military industrial mind.

I also know there is a very real ongoing use of military force and economic sanctions that cannot be easily separated from these insulting words/depictions, but perhaps they need to be, as even one passage you cite in the Koran differentiates between words, deeds, and feelings."

D-mannose and chronic UTI's

2009-12-09T11:35:00.000-08:00

Right now my girlfriend is suffering from debilitating side effects from the drugs Nitrofurantoin (Macrobid) and Ciprofloxin (Cipro). The Macrobid is responsible for chronic joint pain and loss of function, which has seriously compromised her physical activity. The Cipro is now causing her extreme nervousness/anxiety, shakiness, insomnia, tingling/ stinging nerve sensations, abnormal thoughts, painful teeth, diarrhea, nausea, lack of appetite and weight loss, and memory issues/ confusion. Many of these side effects may be permanent, and from what we've read, there are no treatments within Western medicine that will reverse them. Both of these drugs were prescribed to her for urinary tract infections (UTI). They are potent antibiotics and the doctors could have very easily prescribed her a less potentially harmful antibiotic, such as Ampicillan, but more potent antibiotics, which eliminate the bacteria more rapidly, and I'm guessing are not yet widely resisted by bacteria, are a more preferred option. The result for my girlfriend has been devastating, and I urge you to use effective, natural remedies whenever you can so that you don't have to go through what she is going through. In the case of UTI's, d-mannose is a powerful tool in preventing and curing the infection.

If you, someone you know, or even your pet, are suffering from a bladder infection, please take a look at my girlfriend's personal account of how she discovered d-mannose after unnecessarily suffering great harm from Macrobid. D-mannose has been for her a natural preventative and treatment for her urinary tract infections and has kept her UTI free for over a year. She has links to several different brands of d-mannose, which she has used and had success with.

Unfortunately, one day she forgot to take her d-mannose, and she was unable to control the onset of a UTI. The result was a doctor prescribing her the Cipro, and now she is suffering horribly from the side effects. Please educate yourself on d-mannose, the potential harms of antibiotics, and decide for yourself the best approach for you.

Vegetarian Resources

2009-10-14T10:22:00.000-07:00

Transforming our world will involve transforming ourselves. A major part of this for me has been living a vegetarian lifestyle, which I have been following since about 1996. When I switched over to vegetarianism in high school, I wasn't even aware of the environmental implications of our diets. But with the inefficient usage of resources, climate change, and massive deforestation taking place today, now more than ever it is important that people transform their lives by becoming vegetarian or vegan.

In the spirit of this self transformation, I have created a Vegetarian/Vegan bumper sticker site , which links to my waking minds web page as well as providing links to vegetarian resources. Basically I wanted to sell some cool bumper stickers about vegetarianism, animal rights, veganism that people probably haven't seen before. My hope is that the messages on these stickers are strong enough and unique enough to get people thinking more about a meat free diet. If you feel passionately about animals not suffering and want to help spread the vegetarian and vegan movement, please consider taking a look at these bumper stickers.

Backyard Gardening Projects

2009-09-27T09:15:00.000-07:00

We spend a lot of time in the backyard on our gardening projects. During this process, I am putting together a page about backyard gardening projects, ideas, and links that can increase backyard gardening efficiency. Getting the vegetable garden is of course the first step. And that can take years to perfect, as one learns the best methods for growing your own food. I hope to update my garden projects page as time goes by.

Backyard Gardening

2009-09-17T09:01:00.000-07:00

Knowing that the transitions we will have to make as individuals, as a society, and as a globe, are great, I put together a few informational pages that I hope can foster those needed changes. If you are to tune into any alternative media outlet you will no doubt get the sense that the list of problems this country faces are great. I feel that one basic solution that is really quite powerful and cuts across the political spectrum is the act of growing your own food. In that vein, I have established some resources on reasons why we should be creating productive backyard, apartment complex, and urban gardens, as well as some project ideas for making those current and future gardens more intensive and productive.

I feel really strongly that we need to continue to pique people's interests in this area, as food independence is one of the most important goals anyone can achieve, not only for themselves, but as a society. This is because one backyard garden in a sea of suburban manicured lawns will not do much to improve the environment or serve as a social pressure release valve for economic instability or eroding freedoms. If we have a culture of empowered backyard and urban gardeners, however, we will see a shift toward a citizenry that is more unified, more proactive in their own lives and communities, more knowledgeable of the land and environment, more able to support themselves and their families, and more engaged and effective in the political sphere no matter what their beliefs. A neighborhood full of gardeners is more than the sum of its parts, in that the knowledge of each individual can lead to greater efficiencies, shared secrets, local barter economies, and neighborhood trust building. Take a look at these bumper stickers and consider them the beginning of a growing dialogue.

re: peace through superior firepower

2009-06-14T21:24:00.001-07:00

Yesterday at the farmer's market, where my girlfriend and I sell arts and crafts that we make, we had an unusual encounter. A man walked by our booth, looking at our hand made peace symbol magnets, and said they would be better with a set of guns on them. He then said something like, "peace through power," or "peace through superior firepower" or something to that effect. Usually in times like that I don't have anything to say. This situation wasn't any different in that particular regard. What was different was that I didn't experience that normal jolt that I get when I am shocked by a person's statement that is a direct affront to me. I just watched him go by, and we made definite eye contact, but I truly felt no malice toward him, or any need to prove my point by saying anything to him. He really didn't give me much opportunity to either, as he made his statement and kept going, really allowing no time for response. One thing I did notice, however, was that he seemed to experience a bit of a physical jolt in response to me. I'd like to attribute that to the way I remained open yet somehow unaffected by his comments. On an energetic level, I believe I was holding up a mirror to him, and that to me gives me some hope that there are ways of turning things around in people. I also saw a few other things happening that I think are worth taking a look at.

One was that his speedy, walk by comment, was very much like a violent act in and of itself. Instead of making a pro aggression statement in the face of our pro peace magnets, he could have shot me with a gun. In a subtle way he was demonstrating his reality to me. No dialogue, just hit and run. But as he said "peace through power," he was walking away from me, while at the same time we maintained our shop front and watched him go on his way. He was not powerful at all. Not only was he unable to change our minds, he was also unable to elicit a verbal argument from us, or even a sign of disapproval, shock, or dismay. It was us, who in this sense were unarmed of insult and a need to prove we were better than him, who ended up having the power in the situation. If anyone was more affected by the other, it was him by either what we were doing or not doing in response. And I think that manifested itself as the visible jolt that I saw in him, and which I normally feel in situations like that when I allow myself to be affected by someone hurling insults at me. I believe this occurrence was a result of a practice of meditation and energy work. I hope we can all find ways to tap into our source of strength in order to nonviolently empower ourselves.

It is that kind of presence that I embodied at that moment, which I believe has the ability to disarm people of their violence. I don't think we can go out into the world and do a "care bear stare" at an army and expect them to throw down their weapons, but I do think if we can cultivate something around this, there may be ways to transform societies and even other cultures beyond our borders, that will have the effect of deescalating our violent, chaotic world.

shift of consciousness

2009-06-11T23:51:00.001-07:00

In my continuing attempt to suggest methods for personal transformation, I have put together some information on mantras and how they can be used in a meditative or spiritual practice. Mantras won't bring back the birds, the bees, or the bats that are being seriously threatened most likely by human activities. I don't know what will. I hope to God we can stop this Juggernaut of destruction. My take, though, is that if we develop ourselves spiritually as we attempt to discover solutions in the world around us, we will be better prepared for the challenges that lie ahead. After reading about the bats facing extinction, we will likely need to be making some serious adjustments. Perhaps through our development of compassion, creativity, and wisdom, we can find some solutions. It will likely take some massive changes, however, in our daily lives. Well, the changes are coming one way or another.

The coming transitions

2009-06-11T23:35:00.000-07:00

We went camping recently in one of Montana's national forests. Aside from some amazing scenery in a remote location, we stumbled across a bat that was dying in the middle of the road just outside of our campsite. My girlfriend believed the bat had some sort of message for her and when we came home, she put together a page about bats. In so doing, she discovered that bats are in decline across the globe. In the US a few years ago, a virus called white nose syndrome was discovered to be killing 95% of the bats it infected. This disease is rapidly spreading through the US and killing huge numbers of bats. It is predicted to reach California from the East Coast in a matter of years, threatening the bats in this country with extinction. Why should we care? Other than the fact that bats are living creatures and should be considered important in and of themselves, they are also pollinators and predators for insects. Their extinction could mean a lot of damage to agricultural production, which is compounded by the colony collapse disorder of bees everyone is talking about. Consider the fact that migratory bird populations in the US are also in decline, and we are starting to see that our web of life is in serious trouble. Lets not forget that birds are also a significant predator of insects and garden pests.

The New Enlightenment

2009-06-09T22:08:00.000-07:00

For those of you interested in the esoteric who also follow the news and see that a whole lot of wrong is being committed in the world today, you might want to take a look at Norman Livergood's website which he has entitled the New Enlightenment. I seem to check in on that page every now and then, mostly to look at his own spiritual explorations. He's another person out there who knows humanity needs to work for a real change in consciousness. He's certainly put a lot of work into his site. You can spend a long time looking through all the information he's put together.

Thoughts on "From the Heart of the World: The Elder Brother's Warning"

2009-05-24T22:58:00.000-07:00

This evening on Link TV I watched the documentary "From the Heart of the World: The Elder Brother's Warning." It was a film about the South American indigenous tribe, the Kogi, who are believed to be the oldest existing civilization in the world, linked as the filmmaker Alan Ereira said, to the high civilizations of pre-Columbian South America. The filmmaker recounted bits of his extraordinary journey encountering and interacting with the Kogi, detailing the way this very old culture is struggling to continue on in spite of the vastly changing modern landscape.

More interesting to me than the visual juxtaposition of the native culture with the encroaching modern city, machinery, and the grave robbers of ancient burial sites, was the way the Kogi remained calm, reserved and yet confident in their assessment of modern man's destruction of the planet. Without arrogance they referred to the people of the so called advanced societies as their "younger brothers." They were able to let in a few members of the West to be able to deliver the message that became the documentary, yet they consciously kept the outside influence to a minimum. While some people may see this as backward or superstitious, the vast majority of their people were slaughtered in the 1500's by Westerners who simply wanted their gold and their bodies for forced labor. Today, the Kogi see the descendants of that legacy literally destroying the planet, observable to them in the form of polluting machinery and the disappearance of the glaciers in their area that feed the rivers and support all life where they live. Without traveling abroad, they knew from their ancient wisdom that man had cut down too many trees and extracted too many minerals from the earth. They predict the emergence of incurable diseases and the ultimate destruction of the planet if things do not change drastically. In spite of this, they remain steadfast in their own belief that they are protectors of the planet, tending to all life. It was after much consideration that they decided to be filmed, not even knowing what a camera was, in order to deliver their message. These people are living and existing on this planet right now, even as we are accessing the internet. I think it is truly worthy in our own spiritual explorations to consider them deeply, and ask what it is that we can do in a reality that is so radically different from the one they exist in.

The filmmaker Alan Ereira, when asked in a Link TV interview what we in the West can do, suggested that we might donate to Tairona Heritage Trust, which supports the purchase and protection of sacred land for the descendants of the Gonavindua Tairona, including the Kogi, who are truly a threatened people who face the destruction and usurpation of their land by governments and paramilitaries. But more importantly, he said, was that we need to change our ways. Which means not simply throwing money at the problem and breathing a sigh of relief, but actually transforming our own lives so that we exist in a more harmonious relationship with mother Earth.

The Metatron's Cube

2009-05-14T19:20:00.000-07:00

Today I worked on putting some more information into my Metatron's Cube information page. Metatron's Cube to me is a truly amazing geometric form to behold, and though it contains the readily identifiable Star of David, it is composed from geometric relationships that preexisted religion. Looking at the figure, too, reminds me of the Buddhist concept of interdependent arising, in which all things are connected and depend upon everything else for existence. In order for there to be an up, there must also be a down. In this way, the Metatron's cube for me created a bridge between Abrahamic traditions and Eastern philosophy, suggesting that there are fundamental truths which are not owned by any one religion.

Meditation/Energy Work Aid

2009-05-11T14:49:00.001-07:00

If you are looking for tools to help in acquiring a relaxed state of mind, listening to soothing music can be a simple method. There are those who would say, don't let listening to music become a crutch for your meditative practice. I would agree, but still, there are times when listening to music just feels right and be the perfect tool for going into that altered state you're looking for. If you don't want to buy any new CD's try Pandora, a free online radio station generator, and create a station centered around some soothing instrumental, electronic, or new age music, like the Jonn Serie station for example. Another streaming radio station I tune into when the server is working properly is called Bluemars. When it comes to doing energy work or meditating, the streaming radio stations offer more variety than a single CD, and while they won't get scratched like a CD, they still can become repetitive over time, which may or may not be a factor for a sitting or reclining practice. Still, they have been useful for me, and on the occasions I feel I need a little extra help for achieving a calm state of mind, I tune into one of my favorite online radio stations.

Dream Synchronicities, Saturn Returns

2009-05-07T20:58:00.000-07:00

In my last post, I mentioned all of the difficulties that my girlfriend and I have been facing in the last two years. Our birthdays are one day apart, and we just celebrated them in April. I am leaving my Saturn returns time, and she is just coming into hers. This period is generally seen as between the ages of twenty eight and thirty, and is the period of time when Saturn returns to the same location it was at the time of your birth. It is generally thought to be a time of upheaval, turning inward, coming of age. I have always viewed astrology with skepticism, but we have experienced some interesting coincidences of late around this subject which I feel are important to consider.

The difficulties we have faced and are facing definitely seem to coincide with the Saturn returns pattern. But even more interesting has been that perhaps nine months ago I began to create artwork making use of the Metatron's Cube. Around the same time my girlfriend was creating magnets and a painting with honeycomb motifs. After experimenting with the Metatron's cube, I discovered that the hexagon it creates can interlock with other Metatron's cubes in the same way that honeycombs do.

Flash forward to March 28, the day of Earth hour, when people around the globe shut off their electricity in solidarity with Mother Earth. My girlfriend had a dream the night before of holding planets with a crystal moon and hexagonal shapes spiraling through the planet. On the 28th, I had a very rare and powerful out of body experience during my energy work/meditation practice. It was not until later that afternoon that we learned of the Earth hour concept and decided given our experiences in the last 24 hours, we should participate. We set up a small alter, lit candles, and placed crystals around them. We also set out a couple circular sprouting trays which we had just received from Amazon a week ago and at that point had our first trays of mature alfalfa sprouts. I placed a crystal sphere into the center of one of the trays. After an hour of meditation during Earth hour, I looked at the trays and realized that in the plastic was a very distinctive hexagonal pattern, made up of smaller triangles that formed hexagons, paralleling exactly a stripped down Metatron's cube pattern. The crystal sphere seemed to be the crystal moon of my girlfriend's dream and the planet with hexagon patterns was the sprouting tray. This occurrence was just under a month before our birthdays, and almost exactly a month before the person we provided foster care for was taken unexpectedly out of our home. The next day my girlfriend and I went to a crystal store in town and discovered the aragonite mineral, which has irregular hexagonal crystal forms, and and picked up a piece for her as an early birthday present.

Then today, May 7th, one day after our two year anniversary, all of these occurrences and processes came together. When I was posting a lens about the Metatron's cube, I discovered that Saturn has a permanent, distinctive and unexplained hexagonal cloud pattern at one of its poles. There again was the planet and hexagon theme of my girlfriend's dream, and it just so happened that this planet is Saturn. I can't help but think that there are some really important things going on right now.

Tranforming the Past and Opening to New Energies

2009-05-05T10:41:00.000-07:00

Running in parallel to the surge of spiritual energies coursing through my body that at times are peaceful and inspiring and at other times painful and violent, the last two years have proven to be filled with moments of hope and excitement surrounded by great challenges and upheaval. My girlfriend got quite sick right around the time she moved into my tiny studio apartment in Longmont Colorado. We were in and out of the hospital multiple times within the next few months. A mis-diagnosis in the ER landed her a host of health insurance difficulties, including losing coverage for certain treatments, in spite of the fact that her physician wrote BCBS to clear up the matter. Then in September of 2007, her mom died unexpectedly before she could go into emergency heart surgery. My girlfriend and I had scheduled a vacation time to her home town in Monana which ended up being the very time we traveled there instead for the funeral, which the two of us arranged with some help from her brother who was temporarily back from the war in Iraq. She and I then moved to Montana, and since then have been making a living doing art and foster care for someone with developmental disabilities. The individual we took on, we found out later, was a pathological liar and ended up breaking, among other things, one of my car windows. It was difficult having him in the house, but we created a routine that made it manageable, and allowed all of us to do things we enjoyed. He lived with us for ten months, until his family, without warning, and for highly dubious reasons, pulled him from our home. After taking care of him for going on a year, he was literally taken out of our home a few hours after we received a phone call. This happened just over a week ago.

I believe that my meditative practice has served as an anchor during these chaotic times, and I believe that it will continue to do so in an uncertain future. This is a time of great transformation in our lives filled with peace and tumult. What we choose to do with our time right now will very directly shape our futures. Every choice we make has a consequence, even the unconscious and automatic ones that make up our daily routine. Though I would like for the shifts that our society and that each of us are going through to be peaceful, I believe there will be much apparent difficulty in the coming years as we are forced to confront the collective karma of denial, addictions, unhealthy attachments, and fear. It is my hope that we will emerge stronger, wiser, and more compassionate, as the result of what may very well be a function of a global kundalini transition.